The Intergalactic Trade Federation
This article is about a fictional faction used for a Star Wars inspired setting. The faction can also be used for other space age science fiction settings with few modifications. The Intergalactic Trade Federation, referred to simply as "the Ferederation", "Fed", "Federation" or "the Feds" is group of allied nations, mostly human nations, that base their capital on the former Republic planet of Coruscant. These various nations have largely given up their individuality by now, and the Federation is really not much of a Federation anymore, it's really just one big state. The Federation is a fanatically militarist, collectivist, fanatically materialist and mildly xenophobic military republic. Built upon the ashes of the Old Republic, the Federation is known for being a strict and bureaucratic nation. Controlled by the Federation Congress, the Federation can mostly be seen as a capitalistic conservative military power, that controls a large number of worlds in the region known as the Core Worlds. The Federation doesn't grant full citizenship to anyone, unless they complete (or fail to do so for a valid reason) their military service. Military service is long in the Federation, and military academies teach the recruits what ever skills they are found to be best at, after cross-referencing with what the state needs and the military needs. That means that education outside of the military is largely unusual. Of course, occasionally people need training in something that the military simply doesn't offer, and people earn the right to a bit of post military education to supplement what they have already studied. A lot of people are not deemed worthy of a good education with a promising career in the military, but after their conscription, they have the option of staying in the military reserve and getting free education that way. Private companies are somewhat unusual in the Federation, or rather it is extremely common, as the state is made up almost exclusively of private companies that work together to form a society, but the state owns one third of any of these companies. These companies often have competition, but becoming a partially state owned company means to be state endorsed, and this basically means becoming the equivalent of an alliance mega-corporation in size and power. Further more, a single individual or holding group is not allowed to own more than 33% of a state company, and it is assumed that the state owns the minuscule difference between the three thirds of the company, giving the state the majority share - though various unrelated individuals and holdings can own two thirds combined, though the state retains veto rights purely out of having majority share. Healthcare is free to anyone who is a child or has been in the military in the Federation. Retirement is largely extremely good in the Federation, and people tend to retire surprisingly early with good wealth. It's uncommon to own property or vehicles in the Federation, most people lease property and vehicles from the state or have it provided through their jobs. It isn't even possible to own anything in the Federation if one is being purely technical about it. The document that shows something as belonging to someone is called a "Permanent hereditary non-taxable lease title", which in most other nations would just be called a receipt or a deed. While unemployment is unusual in the Federation, the Federation has an Unconditional Basic Income which is just enough that a person can live in moderate comfort on it. Any Federation Citizen can collect this, though unemployment is largely thought to be embarrassing and is greatly stigmatized. The Federation has intelligently interwoven their infrastructure with their military. Their defense forces maintain a lot of services to the public, such as Policing (ordinary police work is handled by the same military police force, regardless of whether it is a civilian affair or a military affair), private security, logistics, mailing and more. Only state endorsed companies have access to the above mentioned for free, smaller private companies have to finance everything them selves. As a result, when a smaller company is doing well, it is often annexed by the larger ones, buying out the competition and absorbing the good progress. Because the large businesses are all partially government owned, and the military runs practically the entire service, security and logistics sector, there are very few private sector jobs. Outlook on Aliens They are not exactly xenophobic, but they have a pragmatic view on species other than humans or closely related humanoids. Namely that they tend to isolate them and offer them only limited membership in Congress, while making relatively few demands of them - though certainly enough to control the direction that their society is developing in. Psionics and the Federation The Federation is among the nations with the strictest psionic control, having regular psionic tests done on children in school. Psionics have limited rights in the Federation. Psionics who serve in the Federation Space Navy will automatically receive rank of Warrant Officer (titled Lieutenant) with the possibility of rising to Chief Warrant Officer (titled Commander) and will always serve in the Special Forces division known as Psi-ops. They can never rise beyond these stations. Psionics wishing to pursue neither of those careers can stay in the psionic academies - which is in fact their only option, unless they have a wealthy family willing to sponsor them, or they can of course live on the streets. Psionics are not eligible for hire with other positions, by law. Federation military The Federation military is a ruthless and effective military machine, that practically every citizen is a part of.